News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Monterey employees that worked through the pandemic will be receiving $4,000 bonuses.
The Board of Aldermen approved the one-time payment Monday during a special called meeting. Aldermen Nathan Walker said employee appreciation and the number of city workers was the reasoning behind the amount.
“First reason is that A, Monterey we like to take care of our employees,” Walker said. “Second on kind of how we arrived at that I think was that we have a lot fewer employees than a lot of the bigger cities like Cookeville.”
Walker said the stipend translates to $200 per month over the last 20 months worked.
“I know our police department, I know our streets department were both hit especially hard, and I think every department was actually hit by it to where they had to pick up a lot of extra shifts and work a lot of overtime, because we didn’t have the man power to cover those shifts like a lot of other places did,” Walker said. “So, we kind of thought throw in a little extra over and above what some of the other cities are doing.”
According to Walker, the volunteer fire department will not be included in the bonuses. Walker said since they are technically not city employees, they would not qualify based on American Rescue Plan spending guidelines.
“The finance committee did talk about finding other ways to be able to help the fire department in a conservative matter,” Walker said. “(…) We’re going to try and meet with Chief (Kevin) Peters as soon as we can and try to put together a plan.”
The Finance Committee recommended $4,000 bonuses after a work session last week. During that meeting, Walker said his goal would be to have the checks out by Christmas. Monterey was given about $850,000 from the American Rescue Plan overall.
